What is ONDC, and how it’ll impact SMBs and large online retailers?

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June 12, 2022

In April, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade introduced Open Network For Digital Commerce (ONDC) as an alternative to dominant eCommerce global giants like Amazon and Walmart. It’s a non-profit company that will display products and services from all eCommerce platform participants across the network. For example, if platforms like Flipkart and Amazon sign up for the ONDC platform, a user searching for a Smart TV will be able to see products available on both platforms.

ONDC has received about ₹150 crores in funding. It aims to utilize open specifications and open network protocols for promoting open networks. The beneficiaries will be small, micro, and medium enterprises, hotels, retail stores, restaurants, and delivery partners. It’s a first-of-its-kind initiative that aspires to democratize eCommerce. The platform aims to raise eCommerce penetration to 25% of India’s consumer purchases in the next two years, from the current 8% in a country of 1.35 billion people.

How will ONDC work?

Unlike the current platform-centric digital commerce platforms, ONDC will work on a network-centric model. Buyer and seller-side applications that will be connected to ONDC’s open network will allow transactions between the buyer and seller. All three platforms in the open network will be interconnected: mobility, eCommerce, and delivery. There will be several buyers and provider-side applications at the customer and seller’s end.

The seller-side applications will receive buyers’ requests, used to publish their catalogs, and fulfill buyers’ orders. The buyer site application will help customers to search for products or services from multiple participants. Initially, there will be a single gateway to start the application, but it will be later expanded to more gateways. Through this common and open network, buyers will be able to access all the goods and services provided by multiple sellers on all connected seller-side applications. ONDC is not a platform or application, instead, it’s an open network that eliminates the need for a central intermediary.

Data Security and open-network

For data privacy concerns, ONDC will not store or view transaction data. All the policies regarding the exchange of data will comply with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and efforts will be made to comply with the emerging Personal Data Protection Bill. There will be provisions to protect the User’s Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and seller data critical to trade (i.e., competitive data) from third-party access.

Challenges faced by ONDC

ONDC aims to tap millions of small businesses that lack technical expertise. The government will need to run an awareness campaign to bring small businesses to the eCommerce channels. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), a group representing 80 million small businesses, said that such businesses lack resources and order volumes to match the discounts offered by big eCommerce marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart. Another challenge would be establishing technology and easy-to-navigate platforms that lure merchants and customers.

UPI

India has led various population-scale initiatives to democratize markets — Unified Payment Interface (UPI) or Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) or the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The National Payments Corporation of India developed UPI to simplify mobile banking and promote digital payments. NCPI offers a backend solution on which other platforms could offer UPI and a front-end solution as well. Various Platforms such as Phonepe, GooglePay, and Paytm offer transactions via UPI where every transaction is clocked twice – by remitting and receiving bank. ONDC is being called the ‘UPI of eCommerce.’

Dr. Hitesh Bhatt, director at Retailers Association of India, said, “The open network for digital commerce is a market-led initiative aimed at enabling interoperability in digital commerce based on the principles of openness. It aims to enable unbundling, democratizing, and unlocking value for all parts of digital commerce” at the ONDC Masterclass held in December 2021.

Who will benefit from ONDC?

Small businesses and traders have always found it difficult to match eCommerce platforms’ deals and discounts. This platform aims to eliminate digital monopolies and help SMBs, local sellers, and startups sell online. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has launched multiple investigations against Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart regarding complaints that these retailers promote alpha sellers. The Indian government is creating a level playing field with ONDC that will help businesses of all sizes to display and sell their products and services.

Will ONDC be successful?

ONDC will follow a network-centric model where sellers and customers will be transacting through an open network regardless of the application or platform they use. What’s unclear in the ONDC strategy paper is how businesses or Kirana stores that haven’t started selling online will be able to directly benefit from the open network. Since the seller-side applications will be registering to participate in the open network, SMBs will still need to register as sellers with eCommerce platforms to sell. ONDC will bring a power shift in the eCommerce industry, but its successful execution depends on how efficiently government can make digital interactions easier. Unlike UPI, which requires little digital interaction, Kirana stores and local supermarkets will have to familiarize themselves with digital platforms, which will take time.

AI Dubbing Startup Papercup Raises $20 million in Series A Funding Round

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Dipayan Mitra

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June 11, 2022

Artificial intelligence-powered video dubbing startup Papercup raises $20 million in its recently held series A funding round from Comcast-owned Sky.

Other participants include Octopus Ventures, Local Globe, Sands Capital, Sky and Guardian Media Ventures, Entrepreneur First, and BDMI.

Papercup’s current investors include William Tunstall-Pedoe, whose team developed Amazon’s Alexa, Zoubin Ghahramani, senior research director at Google Brain, and former Uber top scientist.

According to the company, the freshly raised funds will assist Papercup in its quest to make the world’s video content available in any language.

Fund manager at Octopus Ventures, Zoe Reich, said, “Papercup’s use of AI to provide affordable, high-quality dubbing can unlock that content for audiences around the world and, in doing so, drive a 100-fold expansion in the video and audio translation market with Papercup at the forefront.”

Papercup is also planning to use the funds to expand its research around expressive voices, expand into new languages, and scale our offering in markets. This capital will enable the firm to expand its promising research and enter new content categories.

United Kingdom-based artificial intelligence company Papercup was founded by Jesse Shemen and Jiameng Gao in 2017. The startup specializes in offering a platform that employs machine learning to translate the voice track on videos, allowing any creator to access a global audience of seven billion people. Papercup’s platform is very effective as it allows media organizations, content creators, education providers, and multinational businesses to increase the value of their work by making it available to a worldwide audience.

Papercup CEO Jesse Sheme said, “People retain up to 70 percent more information when watching videos dubbed in their native language.” Jesse further added that they could tackle all types of material with truly expressive cross-lingual AI dubbing, making video and audio more accessible and entertaining for everyone.

Renesas Electronics Acquires Reality AI to Deliver Seamless Endpoint AI to IIoT

By

Disha Chopra

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June 11, 2022

In its latest announcement, Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier manufacturer of advanced semiconductors, announced its collaboration with Reality AI, a company that offers embedded AI solutions. The partnership will entail Renesas’s acquisition of Reality AI in all-cash transactions. It will enhance the former’s endpoint AI services by providing more efficiency to make their products AIoT ready.

With the evolution of endpoint-protected workload environments, the world cannot be more connected than it is today. This makes embedding AI into products inevitable. Renesas has been offering such workload environments that are equipped to embed AI in highly secured Microprocessors (MPUs) and Microcontrollers (MCUs).

The acquisition of Reality Analytics’ AI tools will allow Renesas to improve its in-house capabilities. Renesas will be able to provide more comprehensive and optimized endpoint solutions for both software and hardware.

Besides Reality AI’s range of embedded tools, it also provides TinyML solutions catering to advanced non-visual sensing. Their fast-delivering ML algorithms are capable of fitting on the smallest MCUs. Renesas’s wide range of MCU portfolios can combine these technologies to deliver top-of-the-line AI.

Reality AI Tools, a Reality AI flagship specifically designed to provide analytics from sensory data, will assist in enhancing Renesas’s signal processing capabilities.

The acquisition will also bring a brand-new AIoT center-of-excellence to existence. Experts from Reality AI will come together at the facility in Maryland and form a software development base to address the requirements of customers eager to work with AI.

Hidetoshi Shibata, CEO and President of Renesas, remarked, “The addition of Reality AI’s AI solutions to our existing embedded AI portfolios will further solidify our position as a leading AIoT solution provider.”

Nala Robotics launches Pizzaiola, an AI and ML automated pizzeria

By

Sahil Pawar

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June 11, 2022

Nala Robotics, an AI technology company, has announced the launch of Pizzaiola. It is a fully autonomous pizzeria robot that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to replicate pizzeria-style foods precisely.

Equipped with natural language processing features, the robotic system can respond to voice menu orders and operational commands, thus saving customers’ time and drastically improving productivity. Additionally, the system checks more than 1,200 parameters every microsecond, from robot field of vision to food quality and point-of-sales. This thorough check ensures safety and enhanced productivity.

Pizzaiola can cook up to 50 pizzas an hour. It also offers 35 choices of toppings and cheeses, along with five doughs and four types of sauces. The robot can also prepare various kinds of salads, burgers, wings, and pasta.

Additionally, the modular kitchen setup in Pizzaiola allows customers to customize their orders by selecting from various ovens, fryers, and grills. The machine consists of traditional conveyor-style and brick-style pizza ovens.

After taking orders, Pizzaiola’s robotic arms knead the dough and add the toppings before sending it to the oven. After the cooking, the robot slices the pizza and packs it into boxes ranging from 8-18-inch in size.

Ajay Sunkara, co-founder and CEO of Nala Robotics, said that Pizzaiola could provide the same output as two full-time workers. He added that it is also capable of working 24-7-365 and can yield an excellent return on investment in a couple of years. Pizzaiola is now available as a restaurant-as-a-service with a monthly leasing option.

Meta’s AI vice-president, Jerome Presenti, leaves after four years

By

Sahil Pawar

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June 10, 2022

Meta’s vice-president Jerome Presenti leaves

Jerome Presenti, Meta‘s vice-president of AI, is leaving after four years at the company amid a reorganization of its artificial intelligence group. The announcement comes a day after Sheryl Sandberg announced that she is leaving the position of Meta’s COO later this year.

The company said that Presenti would depart in mid-June after helping Meta through the early stages of the crucial AI transition. Meta is integrating its AI teams across various product groups instead of having the AI function as a centralized organization.

To continue advancing AI technology and community, Meta will convene a cross-functional AI leadership team led by Joelle Pineau, director of Meta AI research labs. With the new team structure, Meta said that it is all set to push the boundaries of what AI can achieve and use it to create new products for people worldwide.

The AI research team led by Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, will shift to Bosworth’s Reality Labs. This move will further consolidate resources in the AR/VR division, which has more than 17,000 employees.

According to Meta, AI is a critical component necessary to build the future hardware to define its vision of the metaverse. The company aims to take one step closer to the idea by reorganizing the AI group.

Google Chrome to Use AI to Predict whether Users Want to Receive Notifications

By

Disha Chopra

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June 10, 2022

Google chrome to use ai for notifications

Google Chrome is working to tackle certain websites that consistently smother users by spamming them with website notifications. In the upcoming release of Chrome, Google will launch a machine learning model that ties into its far-reaching aim to use AI to achieve ambient computing and predict whether users wish to receive notifications.

This enhancement aims at making web browsing more incessant by cutting down and blocking disruptive messages. In the upcoming version, Chrome will automatically revoke the website’s permission.

Google insists that many users blankly “Allow” the notification prompt. Within minutes, the website starts pinging their browser periodically. If a user subscribes to a website that spams, the situation gets out of control.

The company has already successfully mutated the notification prompts that abuse or mislead. The quieter browsing experience will apply to notifications in general. People can still alter predictions and subscribe to the notifications if they so desire.

This development in Chrome is a more robust approach to combat spam. As a Google spokesperson said, “Notification spam is one of the top complaint reports we receive from Chrome users. This feature addresses this problem by ensuring users are only receiving relevant notifications.”

Using ML, Google wants to conform to a person’s usage in more particular ways and try to act on behalf of the user to cater to the needs and interests. ML in Chrome will also enable webpages to appear more frequently in a user’s selected language. The company plans to intervene in such browsing experiences under users’ discretion.

Shield AI Raises $165 million in Series E Funding Round

By

Dipayan Mitra

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June 10, 2022

Defense-related artificial intelligence-powered products developing company Shield AI raises $165 million in its recently held series E funding round.

This newly raised capital has increased the company’s market valuation to over $2.3 billion, making it join SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril as the only multi-billion-dollar defense-tech startups of the past 20 years.

As part of a Series E funding round, the company raised $90 million in equity and $75 million in debt. Shield AI’s latest funding round was led by Snowpoint Ventures’ Doug Philippone, and received participation from several other investors, including Riot Ventures, Disruptive, Homebrew, and others.

“Investors are flocking to quality. This round is a reflection of Shield AI’s success in creating great products, building a business with strong fundamentals, and dominant technological leadership – with an AI pilot proven to be the world’s best in numerous military evaluations,” said co-founder of Snowpoint Ventures, Doug Philippone, regarding the latest funding round.

Doug further added that they like employing an AI and software backbone across several aircraft to provide genuinely game-changing value to their warfighters.

San Diego-based artificial intelligence company Shield AI was founded by Andrew Reiter, Brandon Tseng, and Ryan Tseng in 2015. The firm specializes in developing solutions and products that cater to national security needs. To date, Shield AI has raised more than $513 million from investors like Breyer Capital, Point72 Ventures, SVB Capital, Disruptive, and many others over ten funding rounds.

Co-founder and CEO of Shield AI, Ryan Tseng, said, “Advancements in technology, medicine, education, and the overall human condition are made when security and stability are strong.”

He also mentioned this requires that the United States and its allies, as forces for good, have the strongest capabilities available to them, including AI pilots that protect people and dissuade violence.

Recently, Shield AI also announced that it would develop swarming drones and autonomous robocrafts for the United States air force. Shield AI’s unnamed robocrafts will help the US air force gain a strategic advantage over its enemies and make better data-driven decisions.

Google Developers Calculate 100 Trillion Digits of Pi Setting a New Record

By

Disha Chopra

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June 10, 2022

google records 100 trillion digits of pi

Google has banked a new record as it calculates 100 trillion digits of Pi. It is not the first time that Google Cloud’s developer Emma Haruka Iwao and her team members set a world record to calculate the most digits of Pi. Three years ago in 2019, they set a record by computing Pi digits up to the 31.4-trillionth decimal place.

For millennia, mathematicians calculated the value of Pi, dating back to Babylonians. It is used in various computations on time-based cycles and space-based circles. Computing Pi’s value is not just about calculations. Such successful calculations demonstrate how algorithms can handle practical problems and keep running for a long time without errors. It’s also a demonstration of the reliability of the infrastructure.

Since the previous record in 2019, engineering and computer science infrastructure has progressed many folds, which is why the previous Google Cloud record calculating Pi digits was beaten less than a year later and broken again in 2021.

One may not need to calculate Pi’s digits up to the 100-trillionth decimal place, but the massive calculation exhibits how flexible Google Cloud’s infrastructure has become over the years. Iwao and the Google team have achieved 100 trillion digits because of improvements in Google Cloud’s Compute Engine and its throughput.

Iwao and her team kept the program ‘y-cruncher’ running for more than five months (approximately 157 days) to get the result. Y-cruncher is one of the first few programs that programmers have been using for computing Pi digits. It has been designed explicitly for tens of billions of digits. But for Iwao, it is not just about the digits or numbers. “I’m looking forward to more advancements and shifts in computer science and engineering, as well as in algorithms and mathematics,” Iwao said.

These advancements are not only specific to computing Pi digits. Down-to-earth computing tasks can efficiently use such developments, and so can Pi-in-the-sky problems.

Anagenex Rounds $30M in Series A for its Alpha-Go type AI

By

Disha Chopra

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June 10, 2022

The Boston-based startup rounds $30M in funding as it promises to bring AI-based small-molecule drug discovery to the world. Anagenex has the ultimate goal of developing life-saving drugs for previously undruggable targets. It combines large-scale lab experiments and an AI-based iterative process that follows an approach similar to what DeepMind used to train Alpha-Go.

The company hooked the investment in a Series A funding round led by Catalio Capital Management, with a previous seed round of $7.2M. In a release, George Petrocheilos, a general partner at Catalio, said, “We see a lot of platform technologies, but were blown away by Anagenex’s potential to fundamentally reshape how small molecules drugs are discovered.”

Drug discovery necessitates infinite patience and budget. Anagenex claims it can do AI-based iterations cost-efficiently and rapidly synthesize millions of compounds in its specially designed biochemistry lab. The lab has been made from the ground up to test the compounds 10x faster and cheaper than other competitors in the industry. Their lab has the facilities for testing more than two billion drug-like prototypes.

Nicholas Tilmans, Anagenex’s CEO, explained that their AI is designed to answer questions like any other AI/ML, but the questions they cater to are much more complex. Anagenex has a better way of testing initially synthesized compounds. It then feeds the results into its AI engine to train it.

Besides synthesizing the drug prototypes, Anagenex incorporates technologies like DNA Encoded Libraries and Affinity Selected Mass Spectrometry to test them simultaneously. This is why Anagenex’s efficiency and power make it tolerable for the uncertainty of drug discovery.

AI to help study Images from James Webb Space Telescope

By

Dipayan Mitra

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June 10, 2022

AI study images James Webb Space Telescope

Scientists to study the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope using GPUs powered by NVIDIA.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is set to reveal the first full-color photographs from the $10 billion research instrument next month.

Experts suggest that deep learning powered by GPUs will play a crucial part in numerous high-profile attempts to analyze data from the groundbreaking telescope located a million miles distant from Earth.

Some astronomers will use machine-learning techniques to discover and categorize galaxies in deep space at a hitherto unseen degree of precision.

According to NVIDIA, researchers can use NVIDIA GPUs to accelerate Morpheus on various platforms, ranging from an NVIDIA DGX Station desktop AI system to a small computing cluster outfitted with several dozen NVIDIA V100 Tensor Core GPUs. The JWST will let scientists observe the universe in ways they have never seen before.

Brant Robertson, an astrophysics professor at the University of California, said, “The JWST data is exciting because it gives us an unprecedented window on the infrared universe, with a resolution that we’ve only dreamed about until now.”

He further added that they have now combined attention methods that allow for more sections of pictures to be categorized at once, resulting in a speedup of about a factor of a hundred. Robertson is part of a team of roughly 50 researchers that will map the universe’s earliest structure using the COSMOS-Webb project. It is the largest general observer program chosen for JWST’s first year.

“The COSMOS-Webb project is the largest contiguous area survey that will be executed with JWST for the foreseeable future,” added Robertson.